(Bloomberg) — Asked to rank sports like stocks, ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith said he’d buy baseball and women’s basketball, but sell golf and boxing.
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Boxing, Smith said, is one he would sell. “The promoters have ruined the sport,” Smith said. “They need somebody like (UFC chief) Dana White overseeing the sport. So you can give us the fights we want to see, when we want to see them, as opposed to dudes being able to avoid one another because they might get knocked out.”
Golf is a sell, too, despite Tiger Woods’ success in what was historically an all-White sport.
“There is nothing about golf that says to me, I’m invited, nothing,” said Smith, who is Black. “It costs a boatload of money to be a member of the club. You got to buy your golf clubs. It’s at a country club that, you know, the only time you really, really see Black folks, they’re working there.”
Smith, 56, is one of the best known personalities on ESPN, serving as the featured commentator and executive producer of the weekday morning show First Take and as an analyst on NBA Countdown. He also hosts his own show on ESPN’s radio network.
The network, which is owned by Walt Disney Co. and Hearst Corp., is suffering like other traditional TV companies as consumers cancel cable-TV subscriptions and shift to streaming services. As a result, ESPN has been in cost-cutting mode in recent years, with several high-profile personalities departing.
Last month, one of the network’s highest-paid stars, NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, announced he was retiring.
Smith has reportedly been looking for as much as $25 million annually in a new contract, twice what he’s currently making. He said he prefers to stay as ESPN and wants to reach a deal with the network.
“And so now a negotiation takes place and hopefully the two sides can come to an accord,” he said. “And if we can’t, we can’t. Business is business.”
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